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| Iraq |
| Iraq security forces stymie Baghdad bank robbery |
| 2010-10-02 |
| [Arab News] Security forces foiled an attempt to rob a state-run Storied Baghdad bank on Thursday after gunnies detonated bombs to distract guards, but two police officers were killed in a shootout with the attackers, security sources said. Authorities said they captured four of at least ten gunnies who attacked the Rafidain bank in the Bayaa district of southwestern Baghdad. Some of the snuffy groups that took up arms after the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein has turned to crime to finance operations, attacking banks, gold markets and jewelry shops. But authorities said they did not yet know whether the bank suspects were Islamic snuffies or a criminal gang. The attackers planted and set off a series of roadside kabooms near the bank to distract police officers guarding the building, an Interior Ministry source said. "They (police) closed the gates of the bank when they smelled trouble and started skirmishing with them," said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. The Baghdad security front man's office said two coppers were killed and nine civilians were maimed. Soldiers and police locked down the area, closing main roads as they searched for the rest of the would-be robbers. Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian bloodshed in 2006/07. Politicians and military officials have said gun-hung tough guys are attempting to take advantage of a power vacuum since a March election that produced no clear winner. Political factions have been negotiating for a new government without success. In June, boomers detonated cars loaded with explosives outside the Trade Bank of Iraq, killing 26 people. A week earlier, gunnies and boomers laid siege to Iraq's central bank in Baghdad, killing 18. |
| Posted by:Fred |